NEADS:Timeline
''This is a new article. As such is has been set to unassessed. Pre 2001 1994-1998: Future NEADS Commander Gains Experience in Military Exercises Robert Marr, who on 9/11 will be the battle commander at NEADS, gains experience in military training exercises. After flying on active duty for nearly 18 years, in 1994 Marr leaves the service. For 20 months, he works as the captain of a Lear 36 business jet that is contracted as part of a simulated “target force,” hired to stage attacks on the United States. In 1996 he returns to NEADS as the director of exercise and analysis. In this post, Marr no doubt gains further experience around military exercises. In 1998, he is named vice commander of NEADS, and in 1999 he will be promoted to become the commander of NEADS. (SYRACUSE), 3/27/2005; SPENCER, 2008, PP. 5-6 Marr’s particular experience around military exercises is notable, since NEADS will be in the middle of a major training exercise on the morning of 9/11 (see (6:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001). NEWS SERVICE, 1/25/2002 September 1997: 1st Air Force Operation Centers to Be Modernized; Computer Software Allows Simulations for Training A modernization program of the 1st Air Force’s air operation centers, which include NEADS, is started. Over the next several years, Litton Data Systems is tasked with computerizing the way the Air National Guard accomplishes its air sovereignty mission, which is the surveillance of US skies in coordination with the FAA. Until now, flight plans from the FAA have been “compiled in logs and have to be searched by hand to identify aircraft,” according to National Guard magazine. “The new system will mean fewer manual inquiries and phone contact with FAA officials about commercial aircraft. The FAA flight plan is now hooked up via computer with the new R/SAOCs Air Operation Centers so operators can easily track friendly aircraft through our air space without having to get someone on the phone or thumb through written log books of flight plans. Composite air pictures are now shown in real time on the screen with no delay in transmission. Plans on the screen are shown as they are happening.” The software also allows computer simulations to be used for training purposes, so operators can “go through a situation at their terminals as if it were happening.” Col. Dan Navin, the special assistant to the commander of 1st Air Force, says, “It will enhance our ability to do what many say is the most important job of the Air Force, and that is air sovereignty.” The new systems should be fully operational in all seven 1st Air Force air operation centers by 2003. GUARD, 9/1997 It is possible that this software is being used on the morning of 9/11, when a NORAD training exercise will include simulated information, known as “inject,” being shown on its radar screens (see (9:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). STAR, 12/9/2001 Entity Tags: Northeast Air Defense Sector, 1st Air Force, Air National Guard, Litton Data Systems Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline January 1999: US Air Defense Mission Rated ‘Outstanding’ in Inspections The 1st Air Force air sovereignty team, which, as part of NORAD, is responsible for the air defense of the continental United States, scores an unprecedented “grand slam” in a four-day evaluation of its effectiveness in performing the air sovereignty mission. The three air defense sectors responsible for protecting the skies above the continental US—the Northeast, Southeast, and Western sectors—have their command and control skills tested in the Air Combat Command Operational Readiness Inspections (ORI). The 1st Air Force headquarters is concurrently tested in the NORAD Operational Evaluation (NOE). All are rated “outstanding,” the highest score possible on a five-tier scale. Only recently, on October 1, 1997, the Air National Guard had assumed command and control of the 1st Air Force and the Continental United States NORAD Region. Retired Col. Dan Navin, former 1st Air Force vice commander, says, “No transition can be truly complete until it is proven that the mission is being performed the right way. This ‘ORI’ proved exactly that, and validated the confidence the senior leaders of the Air Force had in the Air National Guard.” 1999, PP. VI, 114-115, 184; AMERICAN DEFENDER, 3/1999 NEADS is responsible for an area of over 500,000 square miles of airspace, including that over New York City and Washington, DC. All the hijackings on 9/11 will occur within this area. 1999, PP. 51; Despite its “outstanding” rating two-and-a-half years earlier, NEADS will fail to intercept any of the four hijacked airliners. 2001 September 9, 2001: NEADS Exercise Includes Scenario with Terrorist Hijackers Targeting New York Personnel at NEADS practice their responses to a simulated plane hijacking in which terrorists plan to blow up a hijacked airliner over New York City. The scenario is part of the annual NORAD training exercise [[Vigilant Guardian]. COMMISSION, 2004; SPENCER, 2008, PP. 3 In the scenario, the fictitious hijackers take over a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft bound from London, Britain, to JFK International Airport in New York. According to a document later produced by the 9/11 Commission, the terrorist hijackers have explosives on the plane and “plan to detonate them over NYC.” As the scenario plays out, a “Blue Force” is able to divert the hijacked aircraft. When the terrorists then realize they are not near New York, they “detonate the explosives over land near the divert location.” There are no survivors. COMMISSION, 2004 On the morning of September 11, NEADS personnel will be scheduled to practice another scenario based around an aircraft hijacking, presumably as part of the same Vigilant Guardian exercise (see (9:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001). ; VANITY FAIR, 8/1/2006] September 10, 2001: NORAD Setting Stage for Major Exercise, Preparing for Possible Russian Reaction is in the early stages of a major training exercise called Vigilant Guardian that is to take place off the shores of the northeastern US and Canada. The exercise is not scheduled to really take off until the following day, September 11 (see (6:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001), but simulated intelligence briefings and meetings are now being held to set the stage for the mock engagements to come. According to author Lynn Spencer, Vigilant Guardian “is the kind of war game that the Russians usually respond to, even in this post-Cold War era.” The Russians have in fact announced that they will be deploying aircraft to several of their “Northern Tier” bases on September 11. Russian jets have penetrated North American airspace during previous NORAD exercises, and Colonel Robert Marr, the commander of NEADS, has prepared for them to do so again during the current exercise. If this happens, armed US fighter jets will intercept the Russian aircraft and escort them back to their own territory. In case there is any confrontation, Marr has ordered that his alert fighter jets be loaded with additional fuel and weapons. According to Spencer, on September 11, all alert fighters will be “loaded with live missiles in anticipation of any show of force that might be needed to respond to the Russians.” NORAD has already announced that it is deploying fighters to Alaska and Northern Canada to monitor a Russian air force exercise being conducted in the Russian Arctic and North Pacific Ocean throughout this week (see September 9-11, 2001). 2001, PP. 161;[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0563488026/centerforcoop-20 NORAD, 9/9/2001] http://www.norad.mil/News/2001/090901.html According to the 9/11 Commission, the Vigilant Guardian exercise will in fact postulate “a bomber attack from the former Soviet Union.” Between 1999 and September 11, 2001: NEADS Staff Briefed on Possibility of Plane Hitting WTC Staff members at NEADS are apparently briefed on the possibility of terrorists deliberately crashing a plane into the World Trade Center. According to author Lynn Spencer, when Trey Murphy—a former US Marine who is now a weapons controller at NEADS—first sees the television footage on September 11 showing that a plane has hit the WTC, the news will bring to mind one of his briefings: “What if a terrorist flies an airplane with a weapon of mass destruction into the World Trade Center? It had always been one of the military’s big fears.… The image on the television screen certainly reminded him of his briefing.” 2008, PP. 179 It is also later reported that, in the two years prior to 9/11, NORAD conducts exercises simulating terrorists crashing hijacked aircraft into targets that include the WTC (see Between September 1999 and September 10, 2001). TODAY, 4/18/2004 Yet, in May 2002, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will claim, “I don’t think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center… that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile” (see May 16, 2002). HOUSE, 5/16/2002 And in 2004, NORAD commander General Ralph Eberhart will say, “Regrettably, the tragic events of 9/11 were never anticipated or exercised.” TODAY, 4/18/2004 =September 11= =September 12, 2001: Unidentified Plane Causes NEADS Evacuation = NEADS Headquarters in Rome, New York Vanity Fair (click image to enlarge) Staff at the Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) in Rome, NY, notice an unidentified, low-flying plane heading slowly and directly toward their building. Yet all civilian aircraft are supposed to be grounded, with only military or emergency aircraft allowed to fly over the US. According to NEADS Commander Robert Marr, “We thought anyone in the air was either a terrorist or a criminal.” Fighters from the Vermont Air National Guard are diverted towards Rome, and Marr orders the evacuation of the NEADS building, with only himself and a small crew remaining inside. Just miles away from them, the plane suddenly changes course and is forced to land nearby by the pursuing fighters. Robert Marr later says he never found out who the culprit was, but he’d heard it was a local pilot with a seaplane. 2003, PP. 73 Entity Tags: Robert Marr, Northeast Air Defense Sector Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline September 21, 2001: Recordings of NEADS on 9/11 Damaged during Transcription Attempt An unsuccessful attempt is made to transcribe tape recordings of communications at NORAD’s Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) on 9/11, and at least one tape is damaged during this process. AMERICAN AEROSPACE DEFENSE COMMAND, 9/21/2001; 9/11 COMMISSION, 10/30/2003 ; 9/11 COMMISSION, 1/23/2004 On September 11, NEADS was responsible for coordinating the US military’s response to the hijackings. In the corner of its operations floor, four Dictaphone multi-channel tape recorders were recording every radio channel. FAIR, 8/1/2006; SHENON, 2008, PP. 203-204 These tape recorders are run by General Dynamics, which provides an on-site representative at NEADS who is responsible for the recordings. COMMISSION, 10/28/2003 Conversations at all of the air traffic monitoring stations on the NEADS operations floor were taped on September 11. COMMISSION, 10/28/2003 ; KEAN AND HAMILTON, 2006, PP. 86; SHENON, 2008, PP. 203-204 Tape Damaged - On September 21, NEADS makes an unsuccessful attempt at transcribing these recordings internally. Sergeant James Tollack from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey tries to make the transcripts. AMERICAN AEROSPACE DEFENSE COMMAND, 9/21/2001; 9/11 COMMISSION, 10/30/2003 While doing this, he damages at least one of the tapes. As General Dynamics’ technical representative to NEADS, Richard Crane, will tell the 9/11 Commission, it is “his understanding that the McGuire officer who was responsible for transcribing the tapes made a mistake in the process and thus damaged one of the DAT audio tape tapes.” COMMISSION, 10/28/2003 According to a note at the top of the transcript of the first few minutes of that tape, “Due to an equipment malfunction, the rest of the information recorded on DRM 2 DAT 2 was lost.” The note adds that while Tollack had the tape in the data recorder for playback purposes, a “computer equipment failure occurred.” AMERICAN AEROSPACE DEFENSE COMMAND, 9/21/2001 Recordings Not Backed Up - Crane will say he believes that, given the importance of 9/11, the NEADS tapes should have been copied immediately, but were not. Although General Dynamics lacks the capability to do this, Dictaphone could have made backups. And at some point after 9/11, it is discovered that Dictaphone can transfer a DAT tape to DVD for just $150. COMMISSION, 10/28/2003 9/11 Commission Refers to Damaged Tape - The 9/11 Commission will apparently refer to the damaged tape in the endnotes of its final report, where it states, “Because of a technical issue, there are no NEADS recordings available of the NEADS senior weapons director and weapons director technician position responsible for controlling the Otis National Guard Base scramble.” COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 459 The Commission in fact only learns of the existence of the recordings of the NEADS operations floor in late October 2003 (see Late October 2003), and subsequently subpoenas NORAD for the tapes (see November 6, 2003). According to journalist and author Philip Shenon, by the time the Commission receives the tapes, around December 2003, NORAD has still “not prepared transcripts itself” of the tapes’ contents. AND HAMILTON, 2006, PP. 86-88; SHENON, 2008, PP. 203-208 Entity Tags: Richard Crane, 9/11 Commission, James D. Tollack, Northeast Air Defense Sector Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline Late October 2003: 9/11 Commission’s Tour of NEADS Facility Suspended over Discrepancies Several months into its investigation, the 9/11 Commission is already dissatisfied with the Department of Defense (see July 7, 2003). Recorded Conversations Not Provided to Commission - When its staff take a tour of a Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) facility in Rome, New York, which helped coordinate the air defense on the day of 9/11, the staff enter the operations room, which has “more than 20 banks of operators: some weapons controllers and some flight controllers.” The staff find that the operators’ conversations are always tape-recorded, but the tapes for 9/11 have not yet been sent to the Commission. In addition, according to Commission Chairman Tom Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton, “there were also discrepancies between things NORAD was telling Commission about their performance on the morning of September 11—things that the agency had stated publicly after 9/11—and the story told by the limited tapes and documents the Commission had received.” 'Egregious' Failure - Upon learning of the existence of the tapes, team leader John Farmer immediately suspends the tour and the interviews and flies to meet Kean in New Jersey. AND HAMILTON, 2006, PP. 85-88 Farmer will say that the failure to produce the tapes was “egregious,” as, “Those tapes told the story of the air defense better than anything else that anyone could have given us.” Subpoena Demanded - Farmer demands that a subpoena be issued to the Pentagon for the tapes. He tells Kean: “Listen, we have to subpoena this stuff. We may not get it, but if we don’t try to get it, how can you explain to the public that we have done our job?” Farmer is aware that it will be difficult to get a subpoena on the Pentagon—“When you’re talking about subpoenaing the DOD, the room goes quiet”—but he decides privately: “I would have quit if we didn’t. I felt we were becoming a laughingstock.” 2008, PP. 204 Lost Time - Despite opposition from its Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton (see (Late October-Early November 2003)) and, allegedly, its Executive Director Philip Zelikow (see November 5, 2003), the Commission will subpoena NORAD for the tapes (see November 6, 2003). However, according to Kean and Hamilton, this means that “the staff had lost so much time that our hearing on the 9/11 story in the skies was postponed for months. Indeed, the delays from NORAD and the FAA made it highly unlikely that the team could complete its work as scheduled.” AND HAMILTON, 2006, PP. 85-88 Chapter 1 of the Commission’s final report will draw heavily on the tapes. COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 1-46 Contrast with Other Aspects of Investigation - However, the Commission does not make the same effort with all day of 9/11 recordings. For example, it does not even find out which person(s) from the Department of Defense participated in a White House video conference chaired by counterterrorism “tsar” Richard Clarke during the attacks (see (9:10 a.m.) September 11, 2001). COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 36 Entity Tags: Northeast Air Defense Sector, Lee Hamilton, 9/11 Commission, John Farmer, Thomas Kean Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline August 1, 2006: Newly Released Military Tapes from 9/11 Reveal Contradictions in NORAD Accounts Vanity Fair magazine publishes for the first time transcripts of audiotapes from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which captured the activities at its Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) during the course of the 9/11 attacks. NEADS had four multi-channel tape recorders in a corner of its operations floor, recording every radio channel along with time stamps. Nearly 30 hours of audio, covering six-and-a-half hours of real time, have been released by the Pentagon to journalist Michael Bronner, who’d been a producer on the recent movie United 93. Previously, the tapes had been provided under subpoena to the 9/11 Commission, but only a few short clips were played during its public hearings. Bronner, who describes the recordings in detail in his Vanity Fair article, calls them “the authentic military history of 9/11.” They reveal “in stark detail” that parts of the testimony given by NORAD officials to the 9/11 Commission “were misleading, and others simply false.” For example, they show that at 9:16 a.m. on 9/11, when NORAD originally claimed it had begun tracking Flight 93, “the plane had not yet been hijacked. In fact, NEADS wouldn’t get word about United 93 for another 51 minutes.” The New York Times says, “The tapes demonstrate that for most of the morning of Sept. 11, the airspace over New York and Washington was essentially undefended, and that jet fighters scrambled to intercept the hijacked planes were involved in a fruitless chase for planes that had already crashed.” FAIR, 8/1/2006; NEW YORK TIMES, 8/3/2006 Entity Tags: Michael Bronner, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Northeast Air Defense Sector, Vanity Fair Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline Category:Content